Hello! I'm Patty, the face behind Charming Kitchen Garden.

I am a wife of forty years to a recently retired husband, the mother of two daughters and the grandmother to six ranging in age from five to sixteen.

I am a native Southern California girl and have finally come to terms with the fact that I love the climate and will probably never leave.

I have always longed for the country life, the acreage, the farm animals and a huge garden but sometimes life (God) has other plans. So I have learned to adapt and adjust both my dreams and my attitude to what I have been blessed with where ever that might be.

I have lived the suburban backyard chicken life and the small condo patio on a golf course life and everywhere in between. I have never let that stop me from growing food and flowers and from learning all those country life skills I dream about. 

We currently live in the suburbs with a small HOA backyard and all the restrictions that come with that and yet I still manage to grow a beautiful and productive food and flower garden with a small orchard of fruit and nut trees.

I cook mostly from scratch, bake my own bread, preserve from the garden, the farmers market and the grocery store. My pantry is well stocked and we are as prepared as we can be for whatever the future holds. It is possible. You just need to be creative and focus on what you can do right where you are.

I recently opened a Micro Bakery here in my home called Charming Kitchen Garden Cottage Bakery.

My hope is that you will let me show you what I've learned and inspire you to live in the present, learning skills while you continue to dream about whatever the future might bring.

A FEW FUN FACTS ABOUT ME.

I worked outside the home while my kids were in school and left my nine to five to become a stay at home grandma when my first grandchild was born. It was the best decision I ever made!

The hardest food for me to give up would be freshly baked bread. I could quietly eat an entire loaf in an afternoon if I didn't exercise extreme willpower. Thank goodness for friends and freezers!

I once wanted to be a flower farmer but couldn't bring myself to cut the flowers I was growing. I'd still rather see them in the garden than in a vase but I'm getting better.

I am obsessed with natural disaster movies and watch the weather channels non stop when there is a major hurricane or tornado outbreak.

I am an introvert who loves a good party for an hour or so. I'd rather be home than anywhere else.

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY. I HOPE TO VISIT WITH YOU AGAIN SOON!

Now that the gardens are finally finished (as finished as a garden can be) and the heat is coming on, it's time to move inside and focus on creating a cozy interior.  We've been here two and a half years and I still have so much of our home that I haven't touched since we moved in. I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to get going on it but here we are.

A bit of background. We sold all of our furnishings when we left Lemon Lane Cottage because we wanted a fresh start, maybe even a whole new style. The house was in a pretty sad state both inside and out with sparse landscape and a dark and dreary interior. We decided to paint the interior white and put in hardwood floors before we moved in just to brighten up the space. 

Once that was done we hastily bought new more modern furniture for the dining room and living room and hoped the house would somehow show us our new "style".  Well, it hasn't.  So now here we are today in a sparsely decorated house with furniture that I don't love (or even like on most days).  

That brings us back to the interior.  It has become clear to me that our houses don't dictate our style, we do. Yes, there is an architectural element that needs to be addressed but with imagination and heart, that can be bent to fit our personal taste and sense of hearth and home. For me in my heart, I love a cozy cottage vibe that includes color, pattern and fabric. 

With new furniture that has hard lines and neutral colors, I have my work cut out for me especially working on a retired couples budget.  But I have faith over time, nook after nook, it can become the cozy home I'm craving. 

I will share every step of the way here in detail and on instagram in snap shots.  I hope you'll join me and maybe find a little inspiration along the way.

XO, Patty

I have been feeling in a bit of a rut lately.  Kind of unsure of what life holds for me right now and wondering what the future will look like. Maybe it’s because I just had a birthday and that’s a naturally reflective time, I don’t know.  What I do know is that I don’t want to live my life in a place of stagnant reflection, always looking back. I want to look to the future, always moving forward toward a new goal, a new desire, a new hope and dare I say a new dream.

I am not necessarily talking about a great big something (although who knows, that isn’t out of the picture) but just taking steps toward the life I want to be living.  Not settling for the status quo, even if the status quo is not bad or even very good, there is always room to desire more. 

For so long that felt selfish and given the state of the world, more so now. Why do we think we are meant to shrink back and settle when God called us to life live ABUNDANTLY? You can be both humble and happy.

With age comes the realization that life goes by more quickly than we imagined and the days add up to weeks and months and years before you know it.

My hope is to make little changes daily that will move toward the life and therefore, legacy that I not only want others to remember me by, but one that brings me joy, a sense of purpose and dare I say happiness.

My Pastor said last week that the value of a Christian’s life is built over an entire lifetime. And since I woke up with breath in my lungs this morning, I would say that my time is still ticking. What better way to invite others to the Christian life than to do so with a happy heart in spite of life’s trials? I

In this world we will face troubles but…God holds our future.  Let’s live life to the fullest to the glory of God while we have the chance. The world sees enough grief. Let’s show them what an abundant, humble and happy life looks like.

Don't you agree?

xo Patty

 April is here. The rains have finally subsided and life is returning to the garden.

Everything looks springtime fresh.  The leaves emerging on the trees are the loveliest of greens and the blossoms on the fruit trees have started to drop revealing signs of an abundant harvest this summer.

The morning is quiet and still except for the sweet sounds of the birds singing and the trickling lull of the water fountain. 

My how April woos me. You, too?

xo, Patty

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin."  Matthew 6:28

Watch my quiet morning in the garden on YouTube here...

I am trying my best to get things organized so that I will be ready for the slow down that cooler weather and less outdoor activity brings.  It's hard for me to enjoy baking and needlework when clutter abounds. 

So now after a couple of hours of "cleaning" my house looks messier than it did in the first place. Not only is my cookbook nook still not decluttered but now I can't see my dining room table and have baking pans all over the kitchen floor and baskets of craft tools stacked on the guest room bed. 

Sound familiar? 

Tell me I'm not alone. Let me know what areas get you off track when you do organizing projects? Share it in the comments.

xo, Patty

As I've been sorting through my fall garden seeds and reflecting on the successes and failures of my summer vegetable garden I am reminded once again of the blessing of second chances.

And then you see that seed catalog that came in the winter that held so much hope for your summer garden and reach for the seeds that you ordered during the darkness of winter and remember that fall holds a second chance to start a new garden and reap a fresh harvest.